University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss hosts UL Lafayette in Wednesday night clash
8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Fresh off a 3-1, tournament-opening weekend, the Southern Miss volleyball team is back in action Wednesday night at 6 p.m. inside Reed Green Coliseum.
The Golden Eagles are 32-6 inside the friendly confines of the facility since the start of the 2014 season. This past weekend saw Southern Miss sweep Nicholls, fall to Miami (Fla.) in five sets, rally from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Little Rock and sweep Jackson State to conclude play in the 10th-annual Southern Miss Invitational.
Three freshmen made their first collegiate starts in the tournament. Madison Lawler entered the fray as a libero (before switching to defensive specialist later in the weekend) while Chandler Marshall was an outside hitter. Breleigh Favre got the nod in the finale from the right-side position.
Marshall, essentially filling the void of since-graduated and all-time kills leader Stephany Purdue, posted a team-best 49 kills on a .324 hitting percentage.
Grandy, who joins Marshall at the outside position, posted a Conference USA-best 10 service aces (including nine on Saturday alone). She posted five in the Little Rock contest. The last Golden Eagle, not named Grandy, to have five aces in a single contest was Shelby Russell against Arkansas Pine-Bluff in 2014.
Sarah Bell was a star all weekend and was rewarded with C-USA Setter of the Week honors. The junior has already moved to No. 6 on the program's all-time assists leaderboard with 2,727.
The two teams have faced off 33 times, with UL Lafayette winning 23 of them, but this will be the first matchup since 2014. Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot has served as the Ragin' Cajuns' head coach since 2008.
Something will have to give between the two teams. Southern Miss ranks second in C-USA with a .311 hitting percentage, but UL Lafayette yields just a .214 average through its two matches against Tulane (1-1).
Tickets can be purchased by visiting SouthernMissTickets.com, calling 1-800-844-TICK, or visiting the Pat Ferlise Center during normal business hours.
